


The Mysterious Death of Aaron Echolls

by WriterGirl719



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: And Shane has no patience for the Neptune Sheriff's Department, Both Aaron's and Cassidy's, Gen, I probably could've tagged more characters, Implied/Referenced Suicide, The boys agree that Aaron is a grade-a creep, and that Backup is a Good Dog, but I tried to get the major players
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:47:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22423570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterGirl719/pseuds/WriterGirl719
Summary: "Well, no wonder this case is unsolved!" Shane exclaimed. "This town is falling apart. They got people jumping off of roofs and planes blowing up. Normally, these cases don't get solved because the authorities are incompetant, but maybe these guys are just overworked.""Aaron Echolls's death was quickly ruled a suicide.""Okay! I take it back."
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	The Mysterious Death of Aaron Echolls

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings, fellow Ghouligans! So this is my first contribution to the BFU fandom, but hopefully not the last. I thought a fun little one-shot would be a good way to dip my toe in.
> 
> And a note for my fellow Marshmallows: we're gonna say that this takes place before season four because I started writing it before season four. Okay? Okay. (Or it could take place in an AU where season four didn't happen. I'm totally down for that, too.)
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

_The squeak, squeak of the swinging light, the buzz, buzz of the flickering bulb, the sirens in the background as the title appears on the screen:_  
_BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime_  
_Aaron Echolls_

Ryan and Shane sat on the couch in the dimly-lit but spacious hotel room, looking at the camera.

"This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved," Ryan said. "We're in Neptune, California to examine the death of movie star and alleged murderer Aaron Echolls."

Shane looked sideways at him. "Why exactly did we need to come all the way here to do this one?"

"I don't know," Ryan said. "I just thought it would be nice to get out of the office."

Shane looked around the room. "This is a nice suite."

"Right?"

"Is this where he died?" Shane asked, pointing at the couch that they were sitting on.

"Yep."

Shane's expression shifted to one of obvious discomfort. "Did we come here so you could trick me into a ghost hunt?"

Ryan looked at the camera with a sly smile on his face. "Maybe."

"Oh come on!"

"Let's get into it."

"If you pull out the spirit box, I'm gonna throw it at the wall."

Ryan shifted into his deep and ominous "theory voice" as he began reading his notes from his phone: 

**On May 15th, 2006, after a high-profile trial that lasted two weeks, movie star Aaron Echolls was found not guilty of the murder of 17-year-old Lilly Kane. In order to understand the circumstances surrounding Echolls' death, we first have to review the mystery and controversy surrounding the Lilly Kane murder case.**

"Oh, are we doing a flashback?" Shane asked with a smile.

"Yeah, we're doing a flashback," Ryan said. He held his hand up in front of him to outline invisible text. "The screen is gonna say 'Three years earlier,' and we're gonna put like a blue filter over everything."

"Are we gonna put on wigs?" Shane asked. "You know, like on Brooklyn Nine-Nine or whatever, whenever they do a flashback they put everyone in hilarious wigs to make them look younger,"

"You know, I didn't think to bring any wigs."

"Well, maybe if we'd done this in our regular office, and you hadn't brought us hundreds of miles for your stupid little ghost hunt, we could've had wigs."

"Yeah," Ryan said flatly, already looking back at his phone. "What a loss." 

**On October 3rd, 2003, Lilly Kane was found murdered by her family's pool by her younger brother, Duncan Kane. According to the autopsy report, she had been hit hard on the head by a blunt object and died instantly. Further investigation done by then-Sheriff Keith Mars revealed that the body had been iced down to disguise the actual time of death.**

"Whyyy?" Shane asked, his voice an uncomfortable whine. "Why would you do that?"

"According to reports that I read, they thought that their son had done it," Ryan said. "And they were trying to protect him."

"I guess...that makes sense, from an emotional standpoint," Shane said. "It feels sort of like choosing one child over the other, but if you've already lost one child, it makes sense that you would go all in on protecting the other."

"Yeah, that makes sense to me, as horrible a situation as this is."

"Yeah, I feel bad for these people."

"Well," Ryan said, with the hint of a smile. "Some people think they probably got their revenge."

"Ohhh. Foreshadowing," Shane said, triggering Ryan's laughter. "Nice."

**This tampering with evidence led Mars to believe that Lilly Kane was murdered by a member of her own family, and he set his sights on her father, tech billionaire Jake Kane. This led to a backlash from the public and a recall election that ousted Mars from office and replaced him with Deputy Don Lamb. Lamb would eventually arrest, and get a confession from, a disgruntled former Kane Software employee named Abel Koontz, who allegedly murdered Lilly Kane as revenge for her father stealing Koontz's work. Koontz would remain in prison, maintaining his guilt and facing the death penalty, for almost two years.**

"Creep," Shane said. "People are...I understand if you want to grab the credit and notoriety for doing something people might consider cool, like being a serial killer."

Ryan narrowed his eyes at his friend, but that didn't stop him.

"What do you gain from pretending to kill one teenage girl?"

"There are some reports that the Koontz family got some sort of settlement in return," Ryan said. "Some sort of hush money. I haven't been able to find any proof of that. I imagine that everybody involved signed some strong non-disclosure agreements."

"So, it's like, 'We're gonna frame your husband for murder.'" Ryan was already laughing. "'We're gonna give you a lot of money. But if you tell anyone, we're gonna sue you.'"

"Yeah, basically."

"I think rich people take lawsuits too seriously, because I would not be on board with that."

"You might just like your family more than Abel Koontz's liked him."

"That's entirely possible."

**Koontz's name was only cleared after investigation by former Sheriff Mars proved that he was with a prostitute at the time of the murder. While this basically cleared Koontz in the mind of the public, Sheriff Lamb refused to reopen the case. The mystery might have gone unsolved forever if not for Keith Mars's 17-year-old daughter Veronica. On the night of May 10th, 2005, shortly after Koontz's alibi became public, Veronica Mars visited the Kane home and snuck into Lilly's bedroom, where she uncovered video evidence of an affair between Lilly Kane and Aaron Echolls.**

"You say 'affair,'" Shane said hesitantly. "But..."

"I say 'affair' because that's how it's consistently referred to in the case files," Ryan said. "But we need to stress that she was seventeen at the time."

"Yes, let's put that out there."

"It's out there," Ryam said. "Aaron Echolls was a creep."

"100-percent certified creep. Also!" Shane said, holding up a finger. "Shout-out to this guy's teenage daughter, Nancy-Drew-ing it up and solving the case."

"Oh, yeah," Ryan said with a smile. "She was just like, 'Well, all the grown-ups are incompetent as shit. Guess it's up to me.'"

Shane put on a smile and held his arms up, the caricature of a spunky young person. "'Well, my homework's done. Time to go catch that murderer and avenge my father's good name!'"

**The discovery of this evidence led to a violent confrontation between Echolls and the Marses. during which Echolls allegedly tried to burn the father and daughter alive. By the end of the night, Keith Mars would be admitted to the hospital for severe burns and Aaron Echolls would be under arrest for the murder of Lilly Kane, though he would spend time in the same hospital after being bit by a dog and hit by a truck during his escape attempt.**

"Good dog," Shane said quietly.

"Very good dog," Ryan said, stifling laughter.

**Echolls would wait in jail for a year before the beginning of the trial. In that time, the prosecution's case would suffer two huge blows. First, one of the star witnesses, Duncan Kane, would flee the country on an unrelated kidnapping charge. And secondly, a short while later, the video evidence of Kane and Echolls's "affair" went missing from the Sheriff's Department, keeping it from being introduced as evidence. At the time, only Veronica Mars and Duncan Kane had seen the tapes, meaning that at trial, only Mars was able to testify to the contents, and this was the only evidence able to be presented of the alleged affair.**

"Okay!" The word burst out of Shane, as if he'd been holding it in while Ryan talked and just couldn't contain it any more. "I am not a lawyer-"

"I can confirm that," Ryan said.

"I'm not any kind of law enforcement expert."

"Also true."

"But the idea that this _crucial_ evidence was being held by the Sheriff's Department and _nobody_ had viewed these tapes except for two teenagers, so there were _no_ law enforcement people who could testify about them..."

"To be fair-"

"No," Shane said, shaking his head. "I don't want to be fair."

"Okay."

"I think we've finally topped the guy who threw Amelia Earhart's bones away in terms of incompetence."

"It is...a little mind-boggling, and we haven't even gotten to the actual trial yet."

"Oh, I can't wait for that. Let's go."

**At trial, Echolls's defense team argued that that there had never been any so-called "affair," and therefore no tapes, and that Echolls had gone to the Kane home to retrieve an Oscar statue that Lilly Kane had stolen from his house. According to this story, the confrontation was interrupted by the arrival of Duncan Kane, who Echolls described as- quote- "in a rage," end quote. Echolls allegedly left, and Lilly Kane was then allegedly murdered by her brother.**

"You want to maybe add another 'allegedly' in there?" Shane said. "You don't want people thinking that you actually believe this."

"I think we're covered."

"What was the brother supposedly 'in a rage' about? Just...seeing them together?"

"According to medical records that were entered into evidence," Ryan said, making Shane's eyes go wide. "He suffered from Type Four Epilepsy, which can cause fits of rage and sometimes violence."

"They entered his medical records as evidence?" Shane repeated. Ryan nodded. "That...sounds...illegal?"

"Yeah," Ryan said with a small laugh. "It is, and I'm sure it might have been an issue later, if the defendant hadn't been shot in the head."

Shane snickered. "That's fair."

**The jury deliberated for 12 hours before returning a verdict of Not Guilty.**

"Flashback over," Shane said, cutting the air with his hands. "Wigs off." He made an elaborate show of removing an imaginary wig from his head, dusting it off, placing it carefully in a box, putting the lid on the box, and setting it beside him on the couch. Then he looked to Ryan, who'd watched the entire thing with an unamused glare.

"Are you done?" Ryan asked.

"Yes. Go on."

**After his release, Echolls held an impromptu press conference on the steps of the courthouse, where he said- quote- "I feel relieved to have my name cleared of this horrible crime." End quote.**

Ryan tilted his phone for Shane to see: "He even gave the old Nixon double-peace-signs."

Shane shook his head in disgust. "What a douchebag."

**After the press conference, Echolls was given a police escort to the Neptune Grand hotel, where he checked in for an open-ended stay, and where we find ourselves now.**

"Literally," Shane broke in, his voice low with displeasure. "Sitting on the couch where he was shot. I don't like it."

"Why?" Ryan asked. "You don't believe in ghosts. Isn't this just another hotel room to you?"

"Yeah, but it's still a hotel room. How well do you think they clean these couches?"

"This is a pretty nice place. It's been thirteen years. I'm fairly certain they've gotten all of the blood out by now."

"I...I still don't like it."

**Echolls would spend a week in a regular room on the first floor before upgrading to a suite on the day of his death. Now, let's get into the timeline of that day.**

**Echolls would spend most of his day at the hotel. At around noon, shortly after moving into the suite, Echolls would place a call to a local woman named Kendall Casablancas, in which investigators believe Echolls set up a date for that night. Kendall Casablancas was the estranged wife of local disgraced businessman Richard Casablancas, who had fled the country the year before. The Casablancas family had been friends of both the Kanes and the Echolls families and in fact, in a startling coincidence, Richard Casablancas's sons, Richard, Jr. and Cassidy, were at a party in another suite at that time, celebrating the Neptune High School graduation that had taken place earlier that day. A party that was also attended by Aaron Echolls's son, Logan.**

"You just introduced five new characters," Shane said impatiently. "An entire new family to keep track of."

"It's a complicated case," Ryan said. "There are a lot of moving parts."

"A guy got shot in the back of the head. How complicated can it be?"

"Well, keep listening, cause we're getting to that."

Shane went quiet, but his face showed his frustration.

**According to the police reports, Kendall Casablancas arrived at the suite at about seven p.m. and the two spent several hours together.**

"Doing...what?" Shane asked.

Ryan gave him a sideways look that made it clear what a stupid question he thought that was.

"Oh, okay," Shane said. "Never mind. I withdraw the question."

Ryan forced back laughter. "The important part is not what they were doing."

"Good."

"It's what was going on in the rest of town because...it was a busy night."

**While Casablancas and Echolls were together in his suite. Veronica Mars was meeting with Cassidy Casablancas on the roof of the building. During this confrontation, Casablancas triggered a bomb on a plane that was flying over the town. The explosion killed County Commissioner Woody Goodman, the pilot, and the state policemen that were escorting them. Casablancas then jumped from the roof of the hotel. According to Kendall Casablancas, she and Echolls had no idea that these events were unfolding. According to her statement, she came out of the bathroom after having a shower and found Echolls sitting on the couch, dead, having been shot in the back of the head. She immediately called the authorities, who arrived at the suite moments later and after learning her identity, informed her of her stepson's death.**

"Well, no wonder this case is unsolved!" Shane exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "This town is falling apart. They got people jumping off of roofs and planes blowing up. Normally, these cases don't get solved because the authorities are incompetant, but maybe these guys are just overworked."

Ryan gave him a skeptical look.

**Aaron Echolls's death was quickly ruled a suicide.**

"Okay!" Shane said, sending Ryan into a fit of laughter. "I take it back."

Ryan held up a hand. "Let me try to defend this."

"Oh, please do!"

"Imagine that you're a law enforcement officer in this town," Ryan said. "And you are 100 percent, completely convinced that this guy killed a 17-year-old girl and got away with it. Then while you're dealing with a plane explosion- that killed your mayor- and some teenager jumping off a roof, you find out that this guy is dead. Do you come in and go-" Ryan's eyes went wide and he affected a look of shock "-'Oh, my god, he's been murdered. Who could have done this?' Or do you go-" Ryan's face went blank and his voice went flat. "'Well. Sucks for him.'"

"So you think it's less, 'Oh, my goodness, he must have killed himself,' and more..." Shane gave a shrug. "'Suicide?'"

"I think there's a healthy dose of apathy here, yeah."

"That makes sense."

**Now that we've covered the events that led to Aaron Echolls's death, let's get into the theories.**

**Our first theory is that Aaron Echolls was murdered by the Kane family as revenge for the death of their daughter. While Lilly Kane's parents, Jake and Celeste, both have solid alibis for the time of the murder, their son Duncan Kane had not been seen in town for several months, and is believed to have fled the country with his daughter to avoid a messy custody battle.**

"Is that another subplot we're gonna have to keep track of?" Shane asked wearily.

"No."

"Thank God."

**It's worth noting that the Kanes remain the richest family in town and have basically unlimited resources. These resources include a man named Clarence Weidman. Weidman was the Head of Security for Kane Software and allegedly one of Jake Kane's most loyal employees. He had been implicated in the Kane family's Obstruction of Justice case regarding the death of their daughter and was accused of being the person who iced down her body.**

"So he's not above doing some shady shit for this family," Ryan said.

"Yeah. Yikes."

**Witnesses at the Neptune Grand reported seeing a man fitting Weidman's description on the night of Echolls's death, and Weidman's so-called "alibi" was that he was in a meeting with Jake Kane for several hours that night. However, Weidman's presence at the hotel could not be confirmed because the security cameras in the elevators were "malfunctioning" for over an hour that evening, including the time of the murder.**

"Wow," Shane said flatly. "This sounds like a very well-done murder. Perhaps carried off with someone with a lot of money." He gave a knowing look to the camera.

"I want to stress that nobody was ever charged or officially implicated in this crime," Ryan said.

"This ' _crime_ '," Shane said with over-aggressive air-quotes. "According to the Sheriff's department."

"Exactly," Ryan said. "But this is...an unimpressive cover story, to say the least."

Shane shrugged defeatedly. "You don't need a cover story if you're rich enough."

"Not around here, apparently."

**Our second theory is that Aaron Echolls was murdered by his son, Logan Echolls. Logan Echolls had been dating Lilly Kane at the time of her death, and had been romantically involved with Veronica Mars at the time that his father attacked her. As soon as Aaron Echolls was charged with the crime, his son began the process of becoming legally emancipated. So it seems clear that the relationship between father and son was strained at best and, according to many people, outright hostile.**

"Yeah, color me not surprised," Shane said. "That poor kid."

Ryan ran a hand along his chin as he thought. "I don't know about you but after going through this part of the case...I might need to call my dad later and just..."

Shane laughed. "Thank him for not being a murderous creep?"

"Yeah," Ryan said. "It just...makes you realize how lucky you are, you know?"

Shane nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean and that's very sweet, but now I'm just picturing you just calling your dad up out of the blue, like-" Shane held a finger-phone to his ear, his eyes comically wide. "'Dad, I love you.'"

"And Dad's probably just like-" Ryan held up his own finger-phone. "'You been messing with demons again?'"

**Logan Echolls had also previously been involved with another woman caught up in the chaos surrounding his father: Kendall Casablancas.**

"Wait," Shane said, visibly taken aback. "The one who-"

"Yeah," Ryan said, sparing his friend from having to ask the question.

"Oh, _gross_."

"Yeah, that's pretty gross."

**Although neither Logan Echolls or Kendall Casablancas were ever officially suspects in Aaron Echolls's death, the connection is worth noting. However, despite these connections, and despite the proximity of all of the main players, Logan Echolls has a seemingly airtight alibi for the time of his father's death, as his movements throughout the hotel were well-documented on security cameras. As mentioned earlier, he was at the party celebrating his high school graduation, until he received a message from Veronica Mars asking him to meet her on the roof, where she was currently in the confrontation with Cassiday Casablancas that ended with Casablancas's suicide. From there, Echolls and Mars left the roof and requested assistance from hotel security, telling them that they feared Casablancas may have harmed his girlfriend. Security let them into Casablancas's room, where they found his girlfriend shaken but alive. After this, the three were questioned for hours by the Naptune Sheriff's Department, and it was during this time that they received the report of Aaron Echolls's death.**

"So," Shane said. "He...was kind of busy. Maybe didn't have a lot of time for popping by his dad's room and shooting him in the head."

"Not that that would take very long," Ryan said. "But yeah, his movements were tracked pretty closely throughout the night, so it seems unlikely. It _doesn't_ seem unlikely to me, given the connection betwen the son and Kendall Casablancas, that there may have been something planned that went awry but, at this point, we'll likely never know if that was the case."

"You think there were shenanigans afoot, that were maybe derailed by...other shenanigans going on?"

"There were a lot of shenanigans going on at this hotel that night," Ryan said. "That's what I think. I don't think that Logan Echolls actually killed his father, but I think the connection to the woman that was in the suite is suspicious."

"Oh, yeah."

**Our third and final theory is that Aaron Echolls was killed by the Mars family. Former Sheriff Keith Mars and his daughter Veronica had a long and unpleasant history with Echolls that we've already covered. So, like everyone else we've discussed, they had an obvious motive, and Veronica Mars was present at the Neptune Grand that night and actually interacted with Echolls earlier in the evening. She was at the hotel looking for Cassidy Casablancas and his girlfriend, who was a close friend of hers, and happened by chance to share an elevator with Echolls, an encounter which was caught on the elevator's security camera. the same camera that would later mysteriously malfunction.**

Shane leaned in towards Ryan to watch the video in question on his phone.

"So you can see," Ryan said. "It doesn't appear to be a pleasant encounter. He seems to be threatening her, which is unsurprising on one hand-"

"Cause he's a psychopath," Shane said.

"Exactly. But also sort of surprising because, like, what do you have to gain from that? You don't need to like scare her into silence, cause you're untouchable. You've escaped. You're home free."

"That's probably exactly what he's saying to her. He's just scaring her because he wants to, because he has nothing to lose and he's an asshole. He's a monster, and monsters don't need reason to be monstrous."

Ryan was quiet for a second, taking in his friend's statement. "That's...almost profound."

"Yeah."

"That could be our new tagline."

"It's a good one."

**There was also a call made from Veronica Mars's cell phone to her father's that evening, directly before she messaged Logan Echolls to meet her on the roof. In most cases, this sort of direct contact between three possible suspects would be highly suspicious, but we need to keep in mind what else was going on that night.**

"Which was...everything," Shane said.

**According to Mars, she made the call to her father because Casablancas told her that he was about to blow up the plane, and she believed her father to be on board. This was supported by the time of the call coming only one minute before the explosion, so I'm inclined to say that despite the Mars family's undeniable motive, they are not strong suspects. There is one more interesting tidbit about Keith Mars, however, that I feel is worth sharing. Despite being several hundred miles away at the time of Aaron Echolls's death, Keith Mars was interviewed in the aftermath, because of a rumor that he visited Echolls in jail several months before. Mars never appeared on the visitor's log or the security cameras, but his car was spotted in the jail parking lot and the officers on duty gave conflicting accounts of his presence, with some saying he was there, and some saying that he wasn't.**

"So what is the theory here?" Shane asked. "Because I doubt that these gentlemen were friends. They weren't getting together for some secret Bridge game."

"I think the theory here," Ryan said. "And what I personally think happened, is that he went to see this piece of shit and said, 'Hey, you tried to kill my daughter. You tried to kill me. I know you killed this other girl. And now _you_ know that I can get to you and nobody will ever say I was here. So...just watch your step.'"

"That's..." Shane grinned. "Honestly kind of great, if that's true. But we don't know."

"We don't know. This is just a rumor."

"And it's such a shame that Aaron Echolls killed himself-" Ryan laughed. "So we can't ask him about it."

"I mean, we _could_ ," Ryan said with a smile.

"If you bring out that torture radio, I will throw it off the balcony."

**The sudden and mysterious death of Aaron Echolls laid to rest one of the most tragic episodes in the history of this small town, and gave much-needed closure to all those involved. It's easy to see why the theory of suicide is so tempting, but in my opinion, it simply doesn't hold water. It's obvious to me that Aaron Echolls died by somebody else's hand, but due to police incompetence or apathy, the case will likely remain...unsolved.**

"Can we say who we think did it?" Shane asked.

"I mean, if Legal says no, we'll just edit it out," Ryan said. "Go for it."

"I think it was probably...someone named Kane."

"Yeah, that's what I think, as well," Ryan said. "Everyone had motive, but they had motive, means and opportunity."

"And honestly, whoever did it, good for them," Shane said. "Justice by any other means...is still justice."

"That's one way of looking at it. That's probably the same way the killer looked at it."

Shane shrugged. "I can live with that."

"Okay," Ryan said. "Well, the only question I have remaining is..." He looked straight into the camera with a mischievous smile. "Are ghosts real?"

"Nope!" Shane said in a cheerful shout that made Ryan burst into laughter. "I'm out," he said, standing up. He started to take off his microphone. "It's Jacuzzi time!"


End file.
